The Lords of Entropy and the 8 Elements of Collaboration

This is the final offering in an "Epic Ambient Battle" that I did with "Local Luminary" of "Lonesome Cosmonaught Recordings". As far as projects went, this was the most satisfying and successful. The "Lords of Entropy" is a side-project where I get to make weird and floofy IDM.

This third battle was performed "Iron Chef" style. The "secret
ingredient" was chosen by a mutual friend, and the rules allowed
for the use of any synthesizers, but samples had to come from a
"well stocked kitchen", which turned out to be Freesound.org.

This was the secret ingredient:

This may not have been the first laundry machine to end up in some of my music.

So, in listening to the song you may be wondering where exactly I incorporated this sound?

In the beginning, and throughout, there is a low rumbling noise. That is the sound of the brick being thrown in the machine, pitched very very low.

The chugging train is in fact a looped section of the spinning washer before the destruction.

The choral sound that starts just before the breakdown and continues throughout is a chunk of the breakdown of the machine that is looped and turned into this warm pad sound.

If you had happened to have watched the video for that week, then
you too were invited to browse the freesound samples, and suggest a few.

When I shared with her the finished product, she only really had
one suggestion: it needed just a sprinkling of something—like a
"do-be-do-be-do" female vocal. Freesound did not disappoint.
While it doesn't have doo-be-doos, the vocals are pretty awesome:

This song really opens up some interesting ideas around
collaboration. While there is friendly competition around the
Epic Ambient Battle, it is in fact quite collaborative. We goad
each other into making the best music we can the shortest
time-frame possible.

But having the input of other people really improved the quality
of my track, and a site like freesound.org is a key to that. It
really is a bunch of people who are willing to collaborate with
you on anything, All they want is a shout back.